Constructing Identity: The Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquileia, Mainz and Nȋmes

Abstract

This detailed examination of the funerary monuments of Aquileia, Mainz and Nimes allows the investigation of the relative impact of citizenship, social mobility and competitive display in the context of individual sites. It investigates how identity was constructed at death and which elements of the social persona of the deceased (gender, age, legal status, honours and occupation) influenced monument design. It also focuses on the representation of the family at death. It thus aims to reconstruct the communicative dimensions of the funerary memorials to reveal who was commemorated and how, and in the process establish how the relevance of funerary commemoration changed across time. What principles controlled space and design? What elements of social structure were manifested through the funerary record? How did each monument communicate and what were the messages transmitted? These are only some of the questions that the work sets out to answer.

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